Spider Robinson

Spider Robinson (born November 24, 1948) is an American-born Canadian Hugo and Nebula award winning science fiction author.

Biography

Born in the Bronx, New York City, [ [http://www.spiderrobinson.com/bio.html Spider Robinson: Bio ] ] Robinson attended Catholic high school, spending his junior year in a seminary, followed by two years in a Catholic college, and five years ["The Crazy Years," "School Will Be Ending, Next Month" p. 107] at the State University of New York in the 1960s, ["The Crazy Years," "Buzzed high Zonked Stoned Wasted" p. 44.] earning a Bachelor of Arts in English. While at Stony Brook, Spider earned a reputation as a great entertainer at campus coffeehouses and gatherings, strumming his guitar and singing in harmony with his female partner. [ [http://www.spiderrobinson.com/bio.html Spider Robinson: Bio ] ] In his 20s, he "spent several years in the woods, deliberately trying to live without technology." ["The Crazy Years," "Loathe Yourself, Fine—But Leave Me Out of It" p. 133.] In 1975 he married his wife Jeanne, a dancer and Soto Zen monk; ["The Crazy Years," "You Just Can't Kill for Jesus/Allah/Jahweh/Rama/Elvis…" p.123, "Starsong on My Desktop" p. 219.] they have a daughter Terri, who once worked for Martha Stewart. ["The Crazy Years," "Lay Off the Lady" p. 105.] He has lived in Canada for the past 30 years, primarily in the provinces of Nova Scotia and British Columbia. He formerly lived in "an upscale district of Vancouver for a decade," ["The Crazy Years," "I Want a Really Interactive Newspaper" p. 78] and has lived on Bowen Island since approximately 1999. [ [http://www.spiderrobinson.com/bio.html Spider Robinson: Bio ] ] He became a Canadian citizen in 2002, retaining his American citizenship. ["The Crazy Years," "Citizen Keen" p. 53–55.]

Writing

Robinson made his first short-story sale in 1972 to "Analog Science Fiction" magazine. The story, "The Guy With The Eyes" ("Analog" February 1973, was set in a bar called Callahan's Place; Robinson would, off-and-on, continue to write stories about the denizens of Callahan's into the 21st century. Robinson made several short-story sales to Analog, "Galaxy Science Fiction" magazine and others, and worked as a book reviewer for Galaxy magazine during the mid-to-late 1970s. In 1978–9 he contributed book reviews to the original anthology series "Destinies".

Robinson's first published novel, "Telempath" (1976), was an expansion of his Hugo award-winning novella "By Any Other Name". The first edition had cover art by 'Powers'. Over the following three decades, Robinson on average released a book a year, including short story anthologies. In 1996–2005, he served as a columnist in the Op-Ed section (and briefly in the technology section) of the "Globe and Mail".

In 2004, he pronounced himself "overjoyed" to begin working on a seven-page 1955 novel outline by the late Robert A. Heinlein to expand it into a novel. The book, titled "Variable Star", was released on September 19, 2006. Robinson has always made his admiration for Heinlein very clear; [For example his 1980 essay "Rah, Rah, R.A.H.!" or the 1998 "Mentors".] in an afterword to "Variable Star" he recounts the story of how on his first visit to a public library a librarian named Ruth Siegel "changed my life completely" by sizing up the child in front of her and handing him a copy of the Heinlein juvenile novel "Rocket Ship Galileo", after which "the first ten books I ever read in my life were by Robert Heinlein, and they were all great."

Robinson is also an admirer of mystery writer John D. MacDonald. Lady Sally McGee from the Callahan's series is apparently named in honor of Travis McGee, the central character in MacDonald's mystery novels.Fact|date=July 2008 | Where does he say he is a fan? The lead character in "Lady Slings The Booze" frequently refers to Travis McGee as a role model. In "Callahan's Key" the patrons make a visit to the marina near Fort Lauderdale where the "Busted Flush" was usually moored in the McGee series. On Robinson's website there is a photo of him "at the address (now demolished) of 'The Busted Flush,' home of John D. MacDonald’s immortal character Travis McGee: Slip F-18, Bahia Mar Marina, Fort Lauderdale FL." [ http://www.spiderrobinson.com/panelscons.html] Similarly important to Robinson is writer Donald E. Westlake and Westlake's most famous character, John Archibald Dortmunder.Fact|date=July 2008 | Where does Robinson say he is a fan?

Between the end of Chapter 5 and the start of Chapter 6 in Robinson's novel "Lifehouse" (1997) is a list of the aliases used by a con man character, containing an impressive number of cultural references (including McGee, Dortmunder, and several Heinlein characters, plus other SF and popular fiction allusions). One subtlety is the inclusion in the list of aliases that were aliases for other people, either real or fictional: James Tiptree, Jr, the pen name used by SF writer Alice Sheldon, and "Sebastian Tombs," which was an alias often adopted by the character "Simon Templar" in many novels by Leslie Charteris.

Robinson's stance may be described as humanistic and humorous. He has frequently encouraged a positive attitude towards world issues, claiming that a pessimistic world view will yield pessimistic results. Frequently in his writing, the conflicts center around a science fiction issue with a human solution, following Theodore Sturgeon's definition of a good science fiction story.

Published works

Stand-alone novels

*"Telempath" (New York: Berkley, 1976)
*"Night of Power (novel)" (1985)
*"The Free Lunch" (2001)
*"Variable Star" (2006)

The Russell Walker/Zandor Zudenigo/Nika Mandiç Mysteries

*"Very Bad Deaths" (2004)
*"Very Hard Choices" (2008)

The Deathkiller Trilogy

*"Mindkiller" (1982)
*"Time Pressure" (1987)
*"Lifehouse" (1997)

The Stardance Trilogy

Written in collaboration with his wife, Jeanne Robinson.
*"Stardance" (1979)
*"Starseed" (1991)
*"The Star Dancers" (1997) (omnibus edition of "Stardance" and "Starseed")
*"Starmind" (1995)

The Callahan's Series

*Callahan's Place
**"Callahan's Crosstime Saloon" (1977)
**"Time Travelers Strictly Cash" (1981) (contains several non-Callahan's stories as well)
**"Callahan's Secret" (1986)
**"Callahan and Company" (1988) - (omnibus edition of "Callahan's Crosstime Saloon", "Time Travelers Strictly Cash", and "Callahan's Secret")
**"The Callahan Chronicals" (1997) - (retitled republication of "Callahan and Company")
*Lady Sally's
**"Callahan's Lady" (1989)
**"Lady Slings the Booze" (1992)
**"Kill the Editor" (1991) - (an excerpt from "Lady Slings the Booze", published in a special edition)
*Mary's Place
**"The Callahan Touch" (1993)
**"Callahan's Legacy" (1996)
*The Place
**"Callahan's Key" (2000)
**"Callahan's Con" (2003)
*"Off the Wall at Callahan's" (1994) - (a collection of quotes from other books in the series)

Short story collections

*"Antinomy" (1980)
*"The Best of All Possible Worlds" (1980) - (collection of works by other authors edited and introduced by Robinson)
*"Melancholy Elephants" (1984 - Canada; 1985 - United States)
*"True Minds" (1990)
*"User Friendly" (1998)
*"By Any Other Name" (2001)
*"God Is an Iron and Other Stories" (2002)

Discography

*"Belabouring the obvious" (2000)

Collected essays

*"The Crazy Years: Reflections of a Science Fiction Original" (2004), a collection of his articles for the Globe and Mail

Awards

*John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (1974)
*Hugo awards for:
**best novella (1977) "By Any Other Name" (later expanded into" Telempath")
**best novella (1978) "Stardance (with Jeanne Robinson)"
**best short story (1983) "Melancholy Elephants".
*Nebula award for:
**best novella (1977) "Stardance (with Jeanne Robinson)".
*2008 Robert A. Heinlein Award (Lifetime Achievment)

References

*Robinson, Spider. "Telempath" (New York: Berkley, 1976) ISBN 0-399-11796-2

External links

* [http://www.spiderrobinson.com/ Official Web Site]
* [http://scifan.com/writers/rr/RobinsonSpider.asp Bibliography] on SciFan
* [http://www.thefutureandyou.libsyn.com/?search_string=spider&Submit=Search&search=1 All of Spider Robinson's audio interviews on the podcast "The Future And You"] (in which he describes his expectations of the future)
*isfdb name | id=Spider_Robinson | name=Spider Robinson
* [http://www.spiderrobinson.com/stardance/index.html The Stardance Project -- a computer-generated film based on "Stardance"]
* [http://www.thefutureandyou.libsyn.com/?search_string=Jeanne&Submit=Search&search=1 Jeanne Robinson's audio interviews on the podcast "The Future And You"] (the history of her Stardance Project and her collaboration with Spider on the Stardance novels)